Comenius Assistantship in Bulgaria and my life further on

neděle 22. května 2011

Week 20

The week of season finales is over as is the sunny weather in Bergen. Unlike with the TV shows, nobody can predict when the sun returns to Saksarlia street. Not only rain and TV shows filled my days in week 20, but also celebration of 17th May, which is a Norwegian national holiday commemorating year 1814 when Norway got its own Constitution. Everyone suits up or "bunads up" and go to the streets. If you want to know more, click on this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Constitution_Day because I'm too lazy to describe it, the only thing I want to mention is that it was pretty impressive. It reminded me a bit the celebrations of 1st May before 1989 in the Czech Rep.

So, there are 4 months ahead of me without any of my favourite TV show. This aupair thing turned me into a total slacker, I've never watched "TV" so much. I desperately need a project to work on!!!

Btw. I was happy with all the season finales but How I met your mother. It's not a show with supposed great finales, I guess...

sobota 21. května 2011

1 month, 5 days

On Saturday, 26/06, 7:00, I'll be sitting on a plane taking off to Prague, CZ. Two hours later, I'll be picking up my suitcase with things I don't wear any more which I plan to leave at my parent's house, so I'll be able to pack up the rest into two suitcases two months later. Even though it's still unclear where I'll head at the beginning of September (well, it's pretty clear but I like to keep my options opened ;), I prefer to be prepared than to pay for overweighted luggage.

About an hour later, after I get my 50l black Carlton, I'll meet up with Viktor at the main train station and we'll head to my hometown, better to say homevillage where my mum will serve us some delicious meal. Then the preparations for my little engagement party can begin. Everything's been arranged with my mum, a cake is ordered from the same lady who'd done all my previous delicious birthday ones....it seems that everything should work out perfectly!

Sunday shall be filled with hanging out with Lenka and her boyfriend. (Viktor hopes to hit some bars with the boyfriend :) I can't wait to see them again. So pity I can't be at their wedding later in July :(

Monday-Wednesday - I need to get a new passport and do some legal stuff - booring! After all that is done, me, Viktor, my mum and hopefully dad can sit in the car and travel to our relatives' cottage close to Slapy reservoir. We used to spend there several summers when we were kids, I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing the place again!

On Thursday we should say bye to my family and take a train to Prague where we intend to stay until Saturday when our travels back are scheduled. First time we won't stay in a friend's apartment but we booked a fancy hotel. Hope it'll be fun! :)

As you can see from above, it's going to be exciting to be back home, it'll be far more interesting than making the boys to do their homework and un/loading the dishwasher.

I guess, my stalkers are very happy now because I told them my itinerary :)

pondělí 16. května 2011

How to get over feeling blue

Couple of minutes ago, I published a very concern post about my job future with this picture of me attached.

But! While looking for this picture, I found some of my old videos featuring me playing the piano! :) They totally made my day. Not because I would feel that I can make money as a pianist :D, but because I remembered how much fun I had playing it, even though I wasn't good at all.

So, if you ever feel blue, email me and I can send you my recordings ;))

neděle 15. května 2011

Back on Askøy

Except for meeting people from the Internet, I also have a thing for Askøy, which is an island close to Bergen.

Because Kryštof didn't know what he was missing that he'd never been there, we'd decided to take a trip there. On Sunday morning, he picked me up in his father's old Toyota Corolla in the city centre and we drove there. So much more comfortable than taking a bus! :)

First we went up the Dronningen, which is the highest mountain of the island. It took about 30 minutes to get up, so you can imagine how "high" the mountain is. We spent about two hours up there, enjoying the sun and I was also enjoying my book Pretty Little Liars.

Second destination was a big lake (Båtavikvatnet) I got fond of in summer 2008. We have this fight with Kryštof where we're gonna bath this summer, I am fighting for Båtavikvatnet and he wants us to go swimming somewhere close to Åsane. I think he liked the lake but we'll still have to visit his place, too.

Båtavikvatnet

Under Askøybrua (Askøy bridge)

It was a very nice, lazy Sunday. We both got a very "funny" suntan :D

Nothing interesting has been going on lately

only:

Spring is here and it's awesome! It's the only season in Bergen when there are some days without any rain!
My last Norwegian course hasn't been opened, so I'm quite irritated by that!
I've started to teach the boys to put their plates in the dishwasher, I'm 70% successful! :)
My tax deduction is about 37% - so my salary is just ludicrous.

All in all, if there wasn't that promised trip to Nordkapp in summer, I would be already probably packing my things and moving back to Estonia. I was even offered a job there, the same company I declined last year when I chose to work for MarkIT instead. So, 3 and half month of (very probably boredom) ahead of me and a very uncertain future from September. Wish me luck! :)

neděle 1. května 2011

Fløyen-Stoltzen (over Storevatnet)

Let’s start from the beginning, Krzysztof was unfashionably late for our 10 o’clock meeting down at Fløibanen because he couldn’t find his second shoe. Anyway, we managed to get on 10:30 funicular train and took the right path which should lead us to Storevatnet (it’s a lake).

Me and the ice-cream. Let the trip begin!

The weather was just perfect! The sun was shining but it was not too hot, not too cold, not so many people,...it was mostly us discussing very different topics (like why is Kris’s nose always red, how do we call fe/male pig in our mother tongues, etc.) and people, whom we were either passed by or who passed us by. We had a whole day for this 10km trip, so we had time to take pictures, sit down and chit chat, eat (but Kris doesn’t like to share my food) and comment on people walking by.

First place we've got lost.

Even though we often just guessed the way, we took the wrong way only twice. For the first time it happened at the place beginning in „Aa“, we walked, walked and then suddenly we realized we were coming back. So, we saw the old ladies having breakfast twice. No biggie. After returning a few meters to a crossroad, we got ourselves back on the right „road“.

On the way we could admire rocks, rocks, lakes, rocks, trees and some views. Kris thought the countryside was awesome. Me, unlike him, considered it very Norwegian. Only waterfalls were missing. Anyway, it was a nice path going neither too much up nor down. Just perfect for an afternoon stroll.

View.

Rocks, trees and a lake.

The second getting-out-of the-right-way happened because Kris wanted to see one more lake. He was so amazed by it that he forgot we had to turn left. We kept walking and suddenly we were out of the map. We got a very good piece of advice there – go back.

Storevatnet and me.

Kris, me and Storevatnet.

Since then, we managed to keep ourselves in the right direction and got safely back to the city with little sore in our legs.

What did I learn today?
Bong means a bumble-bee and fart in Polish.
Girls need to pee more often than boys.
Water is still very cold.

Freezingly cold.

čtvrtek 21. dubna 2011

Meeting my internet friend in Sogndal

I've got to admit, I have a thing for meeting people online, resp. meeting them in real life later on. My parents have never understood this hobby and were pretty sure I would end up killed somewhere, which was obviously the better option than being sold as (a sex) slave. Anyway, no matter what my parents thought, I went for a road trip to Norway with a forty year old guy and my immobile friend, found my host family in Norway online, twice; and generally met different kinds of people.

I met Ole at interpals.net (great page for meeting people and weirdos from all over the world) just before I moved out from Estonia. We've been emailing each other for more than 7 months before I had (have?) decided to take a bus up there.

After five hours, when I finally got off the bus, nobody was waiting for me. "WTF? Was it some kind of prank?" sounded in my head. I texted him, no answer. There was an old man at the bus station who seemed also to be waiting for someone who didn't come. "I'll be there in a jiffy," suddenly appeared on my phone. Having no idea what "jiffy" means, my head decided to translate it as "in a sec".

In five minutes he was there with his red mini-van and without any plan what shall we do. I thought Sogndal is a touristic place, so there'll be quite a lot to see. Yes, Sogndal is a touristic place but not as I assumed, most tourists don't stay, they continue to Jostedalsbreen, Jotunheimen or just further on into the fjord. Sognefjord is a really beautiful place. Maybe when I turn 60, I'll start to work in local Lerum jam factory and will produce "mormor syltetøy", which is considered to be the best jam!

In Ole's world, unlike in mine, sightseeing meant to visit a local shopping centre. Good to see all the shops one knew from Bergen but not sufficient for two days. A bit later, Ole bought a map and we have decided to take a trip to a one of the mountains nearby. Both of us had totally wrong shoes for the mud, snow and water. But I honestly had a lot of fun getting over all the obstacles on the way. We haven't made it up to the top because it was getting late and there was more and more snow.

My dirty palms.

Sogndal in the background

And then I jumped :)

It felt just so good to sit (or lay) down when we came back, turned on Ole's big flat screen and watched How I met your mother. I was surprised how much funny the show is! After some episodes, we switched to a movie a gay guy who made his living out of frauds and cons. I give that movie 7 out of 10.

Ole doesn't eat breakfast and his food supplies were like mine at the university (he's a student). So, when we set out for our second mountain trip, I was a bit hungry. The path was mud-free but not water(fall) free - so, we had to get over some creeks, fallen trees, etc. It was definitely more comfortable than the previous trip. The problem came with missing red mark (Norwegians suck at marking their touristic paths) and a creek made out of water coming down from the top. Neither of us could really read in maps. We kind of agreed that the path continued steeply down, exactly where the water was running down but weren't sure. To make sure we won't get lost, we decided to go back, visit one bathing spot, eat chilli con carne and put me on the bus back to Bergen.